"You spent how much on that cartridge?"

So, you could try Nottingham Analogue Ace Space Deck table with Ace Space arm and motor controller. Add top Ortofon MC, some $3k-$5k tube phono stage, and you will have excellent sound. I would not add optional thick graphite mat - it will make the table less agile,  Spacedeck was not designed with this kind of record mat in mind. But you would need a good mat, not sure which one would work best.

I myself would do it the other way around. Top Nottingham deck with top arm and much less expensive cartridge, would probably begin with Audio Note MM, it is a refined Goldring 1042. Later might upgrade to Ortofon LOMC and better phono stage. And I would most likely never have to upgrade the table and arm. The alternative - Pear Audio next to the top of the line table with arm with the same cartridges and phono stages.

Here is one thing I've learned, and it applies to equipment, music, movies, food, wine, and the quality of practically everything you buy or do.  Sometimes it's good to start somewhere with reviews, but if you get into something it will quickly reach a point where YOU HAVE TO EXPERIENCE IT YOURSELF.  There is no substitute.  Personally I would rather have 20 quality records on a high quality system than 200 records on a mediocre system.  But that's just me.  For others, quantity has a quality all its own, as the old saying goes.  Go to as many stereo stores as you can.  Listen to as many of your friends' stereos as you can.  Tweak the setup and speaker and listening positions if you can.  Turn up the volume and turn it down, and decide what your true priorities are.  My brother is more into midrange clarity than I am.  I'm more into deep bass than he is.  Nothing much is more exciting to me than subterranean bass (that sounds natural - not like a hip-hop car audio rig that's literally shaking the fenders.)  Go find your groove and dig it.

I’ve had carts worth twice my table cost.

Currently have a Soundsmith cart worth about 1/3 of my VPI table cost.

Both work well.

@tcutter 

A recent thread implied that you should not have a nice rig unless you own a lot of albums. Almost like one does not qualify

Why would anyone ruin a lot of albums with a poor rig, before upgrading the rig?

Should we start counting the number of socks to match some number of shoes? 👞 🧦